Cyberpunk 2077 Almost Overtakes Starfield Player Count After 2.0 Update

thegamer.com:

Cyberpunk 2077's latest huge overhaul has led to another player spike, and it's enough to compete with new releases. Cyberpunk is now just behind Starfield on the Steam charts and was even briefly ahead of it earlier today.

This is a great boost for CD Projekt Red, who are just days away from launching Cyberpunk 2077's one and only expansion, Phantom Liberty. Ahead of this, the devs dropped a huge version 2.0 patch, massively overhauling the combat and RPG mechanics, as well as fixing some smaller annoyances players have experienced since launch. Releasing the patch a few days before the expansion seems to have been a good shout, as thousands have booted the game up again to see what all the fuss is about.

Related: I Can't Tell If I Love Or Hate Cyberpunk 2077's Fast Travel

If my calculations are correct, Cyberpunk 2077's playerbase has increased by over 900 percent - not bad for a game that's about to reach its third birthday. In the past 24 hours, it's peaked at 162,610 players at once, and is currently the eighth most played game on Steam right now. We'll have to see how many of these players stick around for Phantom Liberty, but it's certainly a good starting point for any DLC.

If you're yet to boot Cyberpunk up out of curiosity, there's a whole lot to catch up on. The levelling up system is now nothing like it was before, as you now have to go to a Ripperdoc to dish out stats and unlock perks. This is also how you increase your armour, as clothing is now purely cosmetic. So don't just go in expecting to seamlessly pick up from where you left off. In fact, the devs have recommended that you start a fresh save, and it's easy to see why.

One thing that jumped out at us straight away was the overhauled police system.